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EVENTS

Oh. My. Fucking. God. Lets say you’re a self-righteous, overbearing fundamentalist grifting snot-wad of a political party whose members brag about their superior family values on every mic they can hijack 24/7. And now let’s say you’re gonna investigate the website crashes afflicting the ACA earlier this month. And let’s add in that you’re desperate to rehabilitate your public image after a recent screw-up. Who would you pick to be the public face and technical expert advising you on that effort? [Read more…]

There’s something distinctly wingnutty about the party that just lit $ 24 billion on fire in a useless shutdown whining about a few hundred million spent on the Obamacare website. But for the rest of us, by which I mean me, it’s more complex. For starters, computers suck, networks suck, and that’s not a judgement on those of you who make them, it’s a factual observation of what earnings-obsessed CEOs and cash strapped project managers shovel out the door to inflict on us, the using public, every fucking day of the week. [Read more…]

How about a little good news, for me anyway? It appears my insurance company is weary of fucking around and has paid out on some of the work I’ve missed due to health issues over the last few weeks. Which means there will be no more blegging until my usual holiday season hit-up. And speaking of money and health, one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong: 1) 9-11, 2) Iraq War, 3) Hurricane Katrina, 4) slow website, and 5) Great Recession. Here’s a helpful hint: all but one happened under the previous administration and most of those ended up costing a trillion taxpayer dollars or more with thousands of lives lost or ruined for good measure.

But you know what is a little more like a slow loading healthcare website, happened under the Bush WH, and has also cost in the neighborhood of a trillion tax-bucks? It’s not web pages that time out, like the WordPress edit screen, Youtube, and pretty much every other site I visit on a daily basis. It’s this blast from the recent past: [Read more…]

Watching the crew on Morning Joe this morning it struck me, the celebrities on panel must have a ton of personal assistants taking care of their chores. Or something, because even for the ones on “my side,’ it almost appears they haven’t had to call a typical customer service line, you know, the kind normal non-rich people are condemned to rely on, in a long, long while. They’re up there on camera implying the private sector delivers some kind of instant, mythical service meeting an idealistic standard only found in the fevered delusions of pampered site directors and those who ass they kiss.

I shared my healthcare nightmare on Daily Kos yesterday, right on cue the usual suspects are brandishing new supposed data intended to kill millions of people like me before we become really unprofitable. It should not come as breaking news around these skeptical parts that telling powerful people the answer they want to hear is good business, even when everyone knows that answer is wrong. But there’s a difference between artfully roasting data and shoveling it into a blast furnace.

I’m talking of course about that new PR scheme, being widely passed off as a study today, hyped by the usual harpies from Heritage Foundation and beyond shrieking that, indeed we-told-you-sotm, Obamacare will raise most people’s insurance premiums! There’s just one thing wrong with that: [Read more…]

We are facing virtual Armageddon, the Republic may not survive. It started out as a full frontal assault on America and apple pie, but the situation is even now dire: there is a website on the Internet that is slow to load, it often times out and, worst of all, it is taken down for maintenance on a weekly basis. But some people are getting through: [Read more…]

I know conservatives are bummed or pissed right now. Take it from us progressives, we’ve learned the hard way. You have to own all three branches of government to get anything major through. Even then it will be like herding kittens with a squirt gun. Good luck.

If you hear a nearby rumble, don’t be worried. It’s just your local Teaparty caving in on itself. Normally these bozos couldn’t care less about losing support among apathetic centrists. But a new poll holds devastating numbers for the extremist yokels: [Read more…]

By win, Cruz neglects to mention Teaparty added estimated $24 billion to nation’s deficit as result of shutdown

You’ve been feeling lousy, lately it’s turned into full blown exhaustion and a little dizziness. You start out trying an in network specialist, but soon come back around to your PCP as the network requires. Expensive out of pocket short cuts just aren’t an option on the $12/hour you make on the days you can handle a whole shift. A couple of exams and blood tests later, that PCP is really worried, calling you in and sitting you down for a close, grim face-to-face hand-holding discussion. You have all the classic signs of serious, often fatal conditions, we’re talking cancer of the marrow, liver/pancreas, or lymph system just for starters. The PCP is so worried she orders a suite of tests to begin immediately, including a CT scan. It’s so bad the doc actually has her MA call and schedule the most important tests while you are still in her office. You’re lucky in one small way, the radiology group the insurance company uses has an opening that same day, if you can hustle over there quick and have no other responsibilities that afternoon. Now, where in all that in-network drama might you suspect that that CT scan was not going to be authorized after the fact?

In America, in our corrupt healthcare system, on employer sponsored group health insurance considered better than average by most standards, that’s where. I just found out that scan has been denied, my PCP will fight it and probably win. After all, all they found was evidence for past chest injury or infection and a touch of pneumonia in the right lung … the real action turned out to be in the blood chemistry. But I don’t know if we’ll win or not, either way it just goes to show fucked up this system is and how badly it needs to be changed.